Hexen]How was episode 7? The commercials made it look terrible.
TLDR, it was good. Definitely worth watching. Solid 5/7
The answer to this is complicated. Think about this question. "Why do so many LoD tout UO as this epic amazing game?". Well we know a lot of it nostalgia right?
So when answering your question, I've found a lot of people start with a litmus test of comparing it to the original 3. Unfortunately, I don't think that's a fair comparison, mainly for nostalgia reasons. People who grew up with the first 3 episodes will always have a special place in their heart for them. Will any future Star Wars movie ever be able to overcome this fondness of nostalgia? I dunno....
In addition to that, the second 3 were so fucking bad that the expectations for the new one were almost unfairly high. It not only had to be good on its own, it almost had to be SO good that it made up for the disappointment all the die hard fans had from the most recent trilogy. Again, kind of an unfair expectation.
Here's my take on the movie framed in a way of comparing this one to the first 3: I genuinely liked the protagonists in the movie. The acting and the screenplay was done well enough that you do grow attached to them. This was the case for the 1st three as well. They even throw cheesy one liners in there, something the protagonists (especially Han Solo) did in the first ones. IMO, they did a LITTLE too much of this but overall, I found it endearing and not annoying.
Kylo Ren (the bad guy) so far is not even close to comparable to Darth Vader. I don't want to give spoilers if you haven't seen it but suffice it to say, my feelings about him weren't far off how I felt about the Anakin Skywalker character from the first 3. The guy playing Kylo is a MUCH better actor than the guy that played Anakin, so this helped. Overall, I felt they could have done a better job with him, but it wasn't terrible. The special effects for him were cool, and his story line is cool, but the character's lines and behaviors...meh. And I guess I gave it some leeway because hopefully, his character will develop more in future movies.
In summary, as a fan of the previous movies, I would say it was good, maybe even very good, but not great.
If I were evaluating it as someone who was watching Star Wars for the first time, I'd probably give it a very good to maybe even great.
